As a little side note, I work for a utility company in the North East. Before hurricane Sandy hit, we subcontracted a shit load of people from the south to survey damage etc. I was talking with quite a lot of them throughout the week. I'm genuinely shocked by how many people still describe black people as "colored."

1) I immediately LOL'D when I saw the greyed out states (Montana, etc)! Do they even have electricity there yet?

2) I live in AL and am apt tell anyone who will listen to me (very few people + my cat), "Don't believe the lies! Racism is still prevalent in the South!".

3) I was just listening to a podcast where someone was saying how once you leave Portland, Oregon, there's an alarming amount of racism in the rest of the state. Neo-nazis, white supremacists, etc. I don't imagine they would be very techno-savvy, though. Or at least I hope not. /shudder

As someone who has traveled quite a bit I'm not really surprised. Racism is everywhere. I am however to see so much of it in the more progressive states. Rather I'm not surprised that it's there, because it's everywhere, I'm surprised to see so much openness about it. I suspect a lot of people will look at that map and just see the southern areas without realizing that at least two of the states with several of the tweets are two of the most progressive states.

People that support things like BET and black history month are just as racist as people that call Obama a monkey.

And people that voted for Obama because of his skin color are just as racist as people that didn't vote for him because of his skin color.
Goes both ways.

Whenever I hear people use this defense it always makes me think of Louis C.K.

I don't understand how people can fail to make the distinction. You have the IMMENSE privilege of being white. It benefits you in ways you can't possibly fathom without walking in someone else's shoes. Let's be clear here: everyone is racist. Stereotyping others on a variety of factors is built into our very core. We don't get a full psychological profile on every stranger that walks up to us on the street: we use the data we have at hand to prejudge people. It's not a good thing, but we're all guilty of it at some point and the best we can do is try to evolve to judge on better standards than simply the color of a person's skin.

However, minorities, and especially African Americans, suffer from those stereotypes far more than white people. In the eyes of most, black people are guilty until proven innocent. It is the very first standard they are judged by, even by people who consider themselves "progressive." People wonder why black folks stay in their dilapidated communities when Jim Crow racism is a thing of the past. And most will tell you that they simply can't stand being in an environment where they are outnumbered. You know, to constantly have that feeling of being an "other."

Hey, white folks can get that too if they step foot into a minority neighborhood. The difference? It's not 90% of the damned country! So yes, white people, you do have to put in that little bit of extra effort to not be racist. I know it's such a terrible burden. But with great power comes with great responsibility.

that is nonsense, if I made a post online about my intent to kill obama the fbi would take it seriously

Highly unlikely. I don't know if you're being deliberately obtuse, of if you're literally just unable to grasp the concept that law enforcement only worries about credible threats, and that this is codified in law.

Highly unlikely. I don't know if you're being deliberately obtuse, of if you're literally just unable to grasp the concept that law enforcement only worries about credible threats, and that this is codified in law.

of course they did, since the guy a few posts above me seems to think all of these anti-romney tweets are not credible.

I'm also not aware of any major news station that did any reporting on the threats.

How many of the Obama threats do you think are credible? What about the life-size replica dolls of Obama that were hung from trees near the election time? Is that just some racist kids having fun or is that credible?